so your last semester wasn’t great.
we’ve all been there fam. in fact my previous semester was not great either – i got kicked out of my university’s honor program. You need a 3.5 cumulative GPA to stay in, and because of a lot of different circumstances, I finished out with a 3.48 – which is, frankly, better than i deserved. But this semester I’m gonna get a 4.0 and reapply. So here’s how ya do it.
1. have a good first day.
a big mistake is to go balls-to-the-wall discipline on your first day. Fuckin… relax, dude. Wake up as early as you need to be ready, but don’t push yourself to be up at 5am or anything like that. Set our your stuff the night before so you can have an easy morning. Treat yourself to a good breakfast or just get that fast food you’ve been craving for lunch. It’s really important not to stress yourself out too much, especially after your last semester kinda sucked, and it’s VERY important not to let yourself automatically associate school with negative emotions like fear and stress, because that will paralyze you down the line when things get more difficult closer to exam season, etc.
2. don’t be afraid to drop
when going to all your new classes, really seriously evaluate your ability to succeed in a class with that time slot/professor/etc. last semester I had a quantitative reasoning class that was part of our core curriculum – the professor was NOT good at their job, did not teach us the material, and frankly showing up to that class was a waste of my time. What i SHOULD have done was DROP THE DAMN CLASS the first week, and taken it the next semester with a better professor.
3. limit other activities at first
your first couple weeks of the new semester, cut back on other activities. I’m really active in political stuff going on around my city, and i’m on a leadership team for an organization that does that kind of stuff. I’ve let the team know that I’m not going to be participating, going to meetings, or ANYTHING for the next two weeks while my semester gets started. The reasons for this are many – it helps you get used to the pace of all your classes without being stressed out by other things, it helps you reorganize your priorities and put school first, and it also helps you build credit with your professors, so down the line if you’re having problems (like ‘oh SHIT i forgot this homework’ or ‘FUCK i don’t understand this project i need an extension’) they’ll be more likely to help you out, because they know you’ve been putting the effort in.
4. try out something new organizationally
if you’re like me, keeping track of assignments is really difficult. I lose papers all the damn time. So this semester I’ve bought one of those accordion file thingies – so I can keep all my papers in one place, while still having them separate and organized. Just remember, the strategy is only one part, but you’re responsible for sticking to it and making it work.
so there ya have it, friends. you’re ready to start this ‘recovery semester’ off with a bang. you can do it, and so can I!
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